NO MORE MASQUERADE
Phantom star can finally share her big secret
Some secrets are easier to keep than others.
Eva Tavares stepped into the role of Christine Daae in Broadway Across Canada’s new touring production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera when it was running in Vancouver.
She knew she had the role two months earlier but had been sworn to secrecy.
“It was really tough. I was so happy. I just wanted to tell everyone but I couldn’t,” recalls Tavares, who is currently playing Christine in Edmonton and will sing the role in Calgary when Phantom of the Opera plays at the Jubilee Auditorium Wednesday through Aug. 20.
There was an exhaustive search to fill this pivotal role, and Tavares admits she was fortunate to have worked with Phantom’s current musical director, Brad Haak, in the Toronto production of the musical Sousatzka.
“Brad knew my voice and knew my work, and that certainly worked in my favour,” she said.
Last year, Tavares played the central role of Maria in the Citadel Theatre’s production of West Side Story.
“I feel that everything, including West Side Story, has prepared me for this life-changing role in Phantom of the Opera,” said Tavares.
“I actually started out as a dancer taking classes from the time I was 2 ½ years old until I was 18.In Phantom, Christine starts out as a dancer. I actually start the show in pointe shoes. My dance training was an essential preparation for playing this stage in Christine’s life.”
When she was 14, Tavares auditioned for a performing arts high school in Fort Langley.
“The teacher there advised me I should start taking singing lessons and suggested I should concentrate on opera,” she said.
“The irony there is that my grandmother was an opera singer and she was always trying to convince me to study opera. But, it took a teacher to point me in that direction.”
The second stage in Christine’s life is when the Phantom begins tutoring her in opera.
“The style of Christine’s early songs in Phantom of the Opera is entirely operatic, and for those songs I can rely on my training at the University of British Columbia,” Tavares said.
The more complicated and conflicted Christine’s life and emotions become, the more her songs take on a dramatic style.
Tavares credits her West Side Story director, Bob Baker, for giving her the key to approach those emotions through her songs.
“Bob would tell us to be messy. He encouraged us not to be perfect. He would say, ‘If you start crying during a song, be brave enough to use those tears and those emotions,’” she said. “In opera you learn how important being technical in your singing is, but in musical theatre it is more about being dramatic. That’s what Christine’s later songs require.”
Tavares sees similarities between West Side Story and Phantom of the Opera.
“We did so many school shows for West Side Story, and I saw how much the story, the music and the characters moved the students,” Tavares said.
“Phantom of the Opera has a similar effect on its audiences.”
She said that both musicals explore the idea of how essential it is to have tolerance and not to allow racism and prejudice to blind us.
“Because of his (facial) deformity, the Phantom has been shunned by society,” she said.
“He opens up to Christine as he has never opened up to anyone before and that makes him vulnerable. She sees he is hurting like an abused animal and that’s where his rage comes from.”
Tavares is grateful to her stage persona.
“Christine has taught me how to handle and approach this amazing contract I have with Phantom of the Opera,” she said.
“I will be with the show for a year. This is an incredible journey I have been offered, and Christine gives me the strength and courage to take this journey.
“When we first meet her, Christine is an orphan who has been so totally dependent on everyone else. But through her journey with the Phantom, she discovers that the strength she needs is in herself. Life gave Christine, and it has given me, a life-changing opportunity. Like Christine, I have to find the strength within me to make the most of it.”
I will be with the show for a year ... Christine gives me the strength and courage to take this journey.